day 12 Aug 16 Galle and Colombo

Lovely waking in the beach hotel to the sound of waves and to not have a 6 am wake up call. I went back to Galle to wander the streets and walk around the bastion ramparts. Then we went back to Colombo. It is a gentler city than the other Asian cities, without the huge crush of people in Mumbai nor the traffic jams of Delhi. I wandered around Colombo, there was a huge Hindu temple with a facade packed with gods. The festival we had seen earlier in the week was also being celebrated here with dishes of fruit being offered. Just down the road was the Anglican Church. They advertise their Friday night  miracle session from 5 till 7every week, I wonder what their miracle success rate is?.  There were about 50 people there with their arms aloft singing and chanting, being lead by a smooth voiced evangelical man at the front.

This has been a great holiday. I have enjoyed the contrasts of Sri Lanka. Biking was also a great way to see the country and I enjoyed the tea stops in the villages and talking to people then. The Sri Lankans are very warm and welcoming, extraordinarily nice people. We also had a great guide, Suresh who delighted in fixing things and did everything he could to ensure that we enjoyed ourselves and appreciated his country. I was last in Sri Lanka 30 years ago and it has developed hugely with better roads and communications. It is interesting to compare Sri Lanka and India,  the former has a visibly better health and education system. But Sri Lanka suffers from having less political debate and no effective opposition.  Rajajpaksa the current president is busy trying to deify himself. I read Gordon Weiss's book “The Cage” about the civil war and the last days of the Tamil fight when thousands of civilians were stranded in the Nandikadal lagoon with the Sri Lankan army bombarding them.  This was a war crime but the current government has avoided censure. Both Canada and Australia had questioned whether Sri Lanka should host the commonwealth Heads of government meeting (COHOGM) in Nov 2013 because of the genocide in 2009, but the meeting is going ahead. Weiss notes the absence of journalistic freedom in Sri Lanka., this is a huge contrast with India with its  lively opposition and a active media.

I was sorry that I did not go up to Jaffna, the capital of the Tamil area, especially as I had discovered a tomb-stone there with my Dutch family name “Mom” in 1982. Stacey, a Canadian girl in our group had been there and had seen both the war destruction and the active rebuilding programme. She visited a hospital filled with people with post traumatic stress disorder. The effects of 30 years of civil war will take many years to ameliorate.

On my last morning I met my Sri Lankan friend Indira Kahawita for breakfast. she has lived most of her adult life through a  civil war, the first serious Tamil riots were in 1977 when she was at school. She was relieved to see the end of the war. She lamented the absence of an effective opposition. She also commented on how well Sri Lankans do when they are abroad and hoped that this could be replicated back in Sri Lanka. Many people are learning Tamil as part of the peace process and her daughter speaks it easily. Maybe these measures will help.

We were a companionable group, we gelled and everybody talked easily and supported each other in different ways. The Ozzies were fit and good at enjoying themselves. There was a group of fast cyclists who raced ahead. I was happy in the slow group, savouring the landscape and taking photos. 

This holiday has been interesting, challenging and refreshing and I have returned with a love of beetroot curry a Sri Lankan specialty.

day 11 Aug 15 Old Dutch fort, Galle and Sri Lankan dogs

Another morning of fine biking along small roads and through the forest and besides fields. We stopped for tea next to a school where a huge mural had been made of the Bhuddist way of life including touching one's parents' feet. The teachers in the group were envious of this example of discipline.

We spent the rest of the day in Galle where  one can still fell the Portuguese , Dutch and British colonial influences with Dutch street names such as Leyn Baan (Line Street) and there is a huge sea wall bastion now 600 yrs old and withstood the tsunami in 2002 unlike the new town.   The town is an enjoyable eccentric mix of old and new with trendy art galleries alongside red tiled houses and vast maritime warehouses.  I went into the  Dutch reform church  and the pastor must have felt very important preaching from his vast pulpit but there are but no Dutch gravestones after 1720. On the central square was  a delapidated magistatrates court which looked like a museum but is still in use and 300 cases had been heard there  3 days ago. Next door a lawyer sat in her office typing on an old type writer. The  town museum was ancient and filled with antique junk and  had a new jewelry store at the back for shopping deprived museum goers tired of the old stuff .  We also stopped at a quaint reading room  which had 150 paying members and English books and magazines run by a very elderly man and a young girl reading Harry Potter.  We escaped from the afternoon heat with excellent coffee in a trendy cafe. The coffee in Sri Lanka has been execrable, clearly quality only counts if tea is being drunk. We then took a local bus back to our hotel. The driver behaved as though training for Grand Prix and needed all the help he could from the the flashing Bhuddist and three Hindu gods above the dashboard. I hope they are keeping his next reincarnation away.

Since my encounter with the dog I have been following news stories about dogs. Sri Lanka has 2.2 million dogs and there is awareness of the rabies problem with an article in todays paper. The minster of health has promised  the eradicate rabies by 2015. This will be impossible since many of the dogs are strays and in dreadful condition. There is also a Bhuddist reluctance to cull dogs. The campaign will run into similar problems as other eradication campaigns such as leprosy. Leprosy has been eliminated as a public health problem here which mean that they have over 2000 news cases annually and have done so for the last 20 years.

Better just enjoy my last night on the beach and stop worrying about rabies

day 10 Aug 14 Elephants and riding to the south coast

Beautiful,early morning daylight on the paddy field at the hotel. We then biked down to the south coast. After going through a very lush arête the landscape changed to be dry and dusty with trees bent over by the wind and huge cacti beside the road. We stopped for tea at a roadside stall, the owner has to re-roof the palm leaves very two years. I asked him what he would like most and his wish was for the elephants to stop trampling on his crops. The area is a reserve for elephants and the elephants and humans do not coexist happily. We also passed through another village which was the district centre for curd making and there were stacks of earthen ware bowls with curd outside each house. It is striking how the villages specialise in different products.

Our day ended at a beach hotel with swimming in the sea and seeing the fishermen pull their boats up the beach. Eleven men per boat and singing as they heaved the boats up.

Sri Lanka takes ribbon development to new heights. The houses are alongside every road and obscure the villages. This suggest that people feel quite safe in their houses and do not need the protection of a village. There is a vast amount of trade occurring along the roads, with stalls selling local produce every 100 yards, the goods range from tamarind to cotton wool and are region specific. The houses on the south coast are a step up in size and design and the nearest town, Mataram, even has a multi-storey bank. It feels very different to the small houses we have seen out in the rural areas.

The president is from this area and his image is everywhere, in one cafe he gazed down from the wall together with pictures of his son and brother, just to emphasise the family abilities.

The press is also very regulated and criticism of the government is not permitted. I have seen very few newspapers anyway , only in the big cities and on the south coast.

day 9 Aug 13 Tissa Temples and Lagoons

We biked back to the temple along sandy roads, stopping for a breakfast snack at a tiny roadside cafe run by two women who cooked hoppers (dosa-like bowls made from baked rice flour) which are delicious with some sambal. Cooked these on an earthensove which must be difficult to use when it is raining. The two year old daughter was terrified of our white skins and clung to her mother's skirts.

I then had my second vist to the hospital for my rabies jab. It was midday and the hospital had long queues of patiently waiting people. We managed to see the receiving doctor quickly and where then directed to the outpatient nurse who approved my rabies jab, then to the injection area, again not a separate room. The nurse spoke little English but had an anti rabies vaccine (Arvada) register and said that they gave 250 courses per month. The vaccine comes from India and I came away with the package insert to study.

I had a quiet afternoon swimming and reading by the pool. The hotel has created its own rice paddy as part of its garden. And it attracted Herons, waders and ducks.

The Sri Lankan roads are reasonable for biking, in quite good condition, better than the Indian or Nepali roads. The buses are kings of the road in the smaller areas with frequent bus stops. When the bus comes past the cyclist just has to jump into the gutter. There are also lots of tuk tuks, many bright red. One had its cloth roof labelled "bullet proof" another "Mission possible". Maybe they could feature in the next James Bond film.

Day 8 aug 12 hills to coast 102 km

Another day of dramatic changes in the scenery. We started in the hills and pine trees and biked down past a huge waterfall attributed to Ravanna. Then down to the plain. Here the cicadeas started up again and paddy fields replaced the tea bushes. We then came to a much drier scrub-like area but then came to lagoons as we approached the coast. At the end of our ride we had a long detour though villages on a sandy road. But this attractive detour was at 95 km and my appreciation of village life was being set against the pleasure of getting into a swimming pool. I was biking with the Irish girl and it was the first time she had done 100 km.

The countryside was also far more Buddhist with white diagonals and saffron clad monks with their begging bowls on the road , some only about 10 yrs old.

We went to a Hindu Pooja that is held for a fortnight every year at a Buddhist temple close by. It was a magical event. We bought a plate of fruit on our way in, with eight different fruits nicely arranged. We mingled with the crowds end went to a Hindu temple where the priest received the fruit and then handed half of it back to be shared. Then we had wrist threads tied on by a Shiite priest . The dancing girls were starting, and everyone was watching the temple elephants plod around . There were thousands of people there and it had a very festive, lighthearted air. It was an amazing mix of Buddhism and Hinduism. This needs to be promoted because ther are a new group of Buddhist fundamentalists who want everyone to be Bhuddist and they were responsible for the sacking of the mosque in Colombo last week. I have also noticed how people speak very dismissively about the Muslims. The taxi drivers claim that Sri Lnak would have a 100% literacy rate were it not for the Muslims pulling them down. At least the Buddhists and Hindus mingle.

day 6 Aug 10 Kandy to Nuwara Eliya

Another beautiful ride starting at the lakeside in Kandy. The university buildings are on the edge of Kandy in spacious grounds. We climbed up through rolling countryside. After we had climbed above 100m the vegetation changed quite abruptly and tea bushes replaced paddy fields and deodar pine trees stood in lines beside the road. Nuwayar Eliya is at 1800m and feels cool and damp. At the hotel we were welcomed with hot soup and we huddled round the log fire. Mist hangs around the mountain tops.

I had my own drama that day. I had been attacked by a dog in a monastery in Kandy. I was left with deep grazes and three large bruises. So I called my friend Inita in Colombo and she advised me to go to the government hospital in Nura Eliya. I went to the casualty and was seen by an SHO . He had clearly seen many dog bites and put me on the rabies protocol. I was given my injections by the nurse and a card for my next dose of vaccine. It was all very efficient and clean. I did notice the lack of privacy. I did tell my story and show my bites to an open room . But I was impressed by the efficiency and it was free. Pictures of common snakes adorned the walls of the casualty. I suspect that dog and snake bites are as common as fractured hips in the UK. I had not expected to experience the Sri Lankan health system myself. Fortunately the damage is quite superficial and now I look as though I am modelling bruises and am biking along happily. The mosque in Nuwar Eliya was also covered in green and blues LEDs to celebrate Eid.

I have been surprised at the number of dogs in Sri Lanka. Every home seems to have one. They are not the best kept creatures and I am keeping well clear of them.

Day 5 Aug 9 Kandy

A rest day in Kandy and Buddhism dominates here. I went to the world museum of Buddhism and put the Sri Lankan monuments I had seen into a larger context. There were also excellent displays about Buddhism in other countries and I have seen the different forms in Nepal, Indian, China, Indonesia  and S Korea. They are all influenced strongly by local customs. In the evening I went to the ceremony of the opening of the Buddha's tooth. The temple was packed with devotees. I carried a flower offering to remember Laura and was barely able to put it at the front . There was also excellent Kandyan drumming. In the morning I had visited the British cemetery which has just been restored. It has about 120 graves of colonists who died in the 19 century in Kandy from fever, cholera, snake bite, elephant crushing. There were so many who died young.

I have been comparing Sri Lanka and India it is strikingly cleaner, richer and better organised than India. There are no beggars, our guides advised us that here the beggars were genuine unlike India! The children look well fed and one does not experience starving children being thrust at one. The caste system does not operate amongst the Singhalese and I wonder whether this makes them feel that their country belongs to them. I also sense that there is less inequality here. The effects of the universal health care system are visible. Sri Lankans stay in school until they are 18 years old and many people speak good English. However IT technology and services seems far less developed here, although mobile phones are ubiquitous  since Tata from India provided a sea cable. Sri Lanka does not seem to have taken the opportunities for developing the It sector. Here are also few newspapers being read. So now I am aware of the plus points of Sri Lanka. I have seen only a few references to the Tamil conflict. 

Day 4 aug 8 to Kandy

I was woken by the rustling of the leaves around the ecolodge. We then had a fine morning ride. The countryside was lusher and richer than before. The houses in the trees were larger and the bright pink paint salesman had been very successful recently. At small town there was a commemorative clock tower opened to celebrate the opening of a garment factory 20 years ago. In another town we saw an extraordinary road widening scheme, the front 10 feet of the shops had just been bulldozed away leaving bare walls. The shopkeepers were restating their shops further back. I have seen this 15 years ago in Hyderabad and it amazed me then.

In the evening we heard the Kandyian drummers beating away complex rhythms and then fire swallowing. I wandered the town with an Ozzie couple, Helen and William  farmers from WA. They had never been in a mosque so we went into the main red and white one. The Muslims were just breaking their Ramadan fast so we were plied the dates and rice pudding. The Imman spoke excellent English and was so welcoming and explaining how Allah was everywhere. We found a point of contact because the Ozzies  supplied meat to the middle east. We then went on to a Hindu temple and saw incarnations of Shiva, Vishnu and Ganesh. Here the fat priest was taking coconuts from the devotees. There was also a Buddhist temple there with a Buddha statue and bodhi tree. Here the priest blessed us and tied white threads round our wrists. It was amazing to have such direct experience of all three major religions . The Muslims were the most cerebral and giving.

More Buddhism tomorrow. 

Sri lanka day 3: aug 7 to Nalanda

This holiday is not for lie-a-beds...

We are called at 6 and are on our bikes by 7. It is the best way to cope with the heat. Today we had a fine 20 k morning ride alongside a canal shaded by mature trees. The green vista is punctuated with irridescent flashes of blue as a kingfisher catches his lunch.

I passed a divisional hospital in a village. Sri Lankans have free universal health care with free drugs. The small hospitals have 2 docs and manage only simple cases. All serious cases are transferred by ambulance to the base hospitals who also treat TB! And leprosy. It seems good provision. I am sure I shall have many questions for my colleague Indira when I see her in Colombo in 10 days' time.
We had a very tough and dirty bit of biking across a new road.

We ended the day at a beautiful eco hotel (Jims farm) deep in the jungle. Fabulous wooden interior and balconies. I felt ashamed of disturbing the beauty when I hung my laundry out, including a day-glo bike shirt

We also visited a spice garden and saw pepper creepers and a cocaine tree. We also tested the ayuvedic hair removing cream on Irish Niall's hairy leg. It worked a treat so he should go even faster tomorrow.

Sri lanka day 2: Polonnaruwa

Another morning of fine riding along small roads through the lush landscape. There are banana trees everywhere.The rice is ripe and waves in the breeze. We biked through a national reserve and saw fresh elephant dung and a dead viper. I wished Chris Ofili had been there making pictures. I also remembered what a problem snake bites are for Sri Lankan farmers.

We also biked along a main road which was hot and exhausting. I did not bike after lunch. In the afternoon when the temp had dropped to 31 we went round the 13c Polonnaruwa ruins. There is a vast stupa that exudes quietude and I walked around it. There was a beautiful evening light on the Buddha's face. At another group of buddhas one is reclining ready to depart this world.

Sri Lankan food is a veggie treat, the beetroot curries are a new delight. Suresh exhorts us to do maximum damage on the buffets.

Sri Lanka Day 1: 5th August

This year's cycling holiday is around Sri Lanka, conveniently starting the day after I had spoken at a dermatology congress. There are 13 in the group, 6 Aussies, 4 Irish, 3 UK and one Canadian There are 3 farming couples and 4 teachers so I hope for expert assessment of cows. I was also pleasantly surprised to meet Niall, an Irish teacher who was on last years trip to Cuba Our Sri Lankan guide Suresh is portly but also able to bike fast. I had a fine new mountain bike which is perfect for jumping off the road away from buses.

We rode the 25 k to Sigiriya as our starter. The rock arises up out of the flat plains. Ahead of was a party of schoolgirls in pristine whit uniforms who climbed up vertiginous ladders easily and undramatically. On the top one felt like a king surveying the landscape. Later we biked to a Buddhist temple and ascended the many steps to see Buddhas reclining deep in caves. There was a soft evening light as we biked back on small roads that took us through the lush countryside. A great start to the holiday.